listener
Americannoun
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someone who gives attention with the ear, especially for the purpose of hearing specific sounds, speech, instructions, etc..
At story time, you may choose to be a reader or a listener.
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someone who listens to a radio broadcast or to a specific radio program.
They attract teenage listeners with pop songs about first love.
Etymology
Origin of listener
First recorded in 1600–20; listen ( def. ) + -er 1 ( def. )
Vocabulary lists containing listener
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Never Be the Same” includes many moments like this that lull the listener into losing track of place and time with songs grounded in emotion and meaning.
From Salon • May 15, 2026
This could include having linked social accounts on their artist profile, consistent listener activity or other "signals of a real artist behind the profile," the company said, such as merchandise or concert dates.
From BBC • May 1, 2026
“The most important thing about music is what happens when it stops, what remains with the listener, what they take away,” he told the Guardian in 2012.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 23, 2026
“For the listener, who listens in the snow, / And, nothing himself, beholds / Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026
For Mozart or Haydn, the hierarchy of chords was so strict that the listener is never far from the ‘home’ key centre.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
